~AM ~W~$ ,, CA~

National League
Championship Series
Sin Diego 3,
ATLANTA 0
(5sn.Diego leads
series. 2-0)

SPOeRTSj~m 1dl

Tqking 'M' teams
Check out the Michigan field hockey team this after-
noon against Ohio State at Ocker Field on S. State
Sreet. The Wolverines have won four in a row and lead
the Big Ten race. Student admission is free.

Friday
October 9, 1998

1.1


Banner goes up at CCHA opener Sunday

ByT.JLBarka
Daily Sports Writer
At first glance, the Michigan and
Lake Superior hockey teams seem to be
mirror images of each other.
Both teams wear blue uniforms. Both
teams are from Michigan. And both
teams feature a large number of fresh-
I and sophomores on their rosters.
Mirrors can be deceiving though.
As the Wolverines and Lakers kick
off the CCHA season Sunday night at
Yost Ice Arena, there is one difference
that sticks out like a sore thumb. The
Wolverines will raise their 1998 nation-
al championship banner before the 5
p.m, game.
"I'm excited about the banner,"
homore right wing Scott Matzka
d. "I'm just happy about it. Every
day we'll see it, everyday we see our
rings will make us happy."
Lindsey Ebert (5)
and the rest of
the Wolverines
need to finish off =
re kills if they
're to knock off ,
Minnesota in
their Rock the
House matchx
tonight. : .
DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily

While Michigan was busy celebrat-
ing in Boston last year, the Lakers were
feeling the sting of being swept by Ohio
State in the CCHA playoffs. With 10
freshman and nine sophomores on the
26-man roster, the Lakers are green.
"We know that they are a pretty
young team," Michigan coach Red
Berenson said. "They have a large
sophomore class, which is very similar
to us."
While the Lakers may lack experi-
ence, they do have one thing going for
them - size. Lake Superior has tradi-
tionally been a physical, defense-mind-
ed team, and Michigan isn't expecting
anything different this go-around.
"I think the Lakers will be a physical
team - a difficult team to play
against,' Berenson said. "They are a
close-checking team, so we have to be
able to play through that and stay

focused on the way we have to play. We
have to make any chances that we have
count."
Michigan had plenty of chances in
the first period of its game against
Guelph this past Saturday and took
advantage by dashing out to a 3-0 lead.
But the Wolverines were bogged
down in the second period by penalties,
playing two men down on two occa-
sions. The rash of penalties concerns
Michigan, especially against a hard-
checking team like Lake Superior.
"We have to emphasize playing
smarter," Matzka said. "Make the hit
when you got the hit, but don't hit any-
one from behind. You can play smart
and play physical at the same time,
which is what we will have to do."
The Wolverines will be more than
happy to trade checks with the Lakers,
but don't expect them to engage Lake

Superior in a boxing match.
Throughout the week in practice,
Michigan has worked on moving the
puck quickly around the ice.
"We have been working on cycling,"
Matzka said. "We are definitely going
to want to cycle the puck around on
Sunday"
Another advantage that Lake
Superior might enjoy is having played a
CCHA game this season before travel-
ing to Ann Arbor. The Lakers are in
South Bend tonight for a game against
Notre Dame.
Michigan was supposed to be in
Columbus tonight to play the Buckeyes
in the grand opening of the 19,000-seat
Schottenstein Center. But the new arena
won't be open until January, so the
game was moved to Jan. 2.
This weekend will also mark the sea-
See LAKERS, Page 12

/. /

~
.
'
r :

DAVID ROCHIKIND/Daily
Michigan forward Geoff Koch had a goal last Saturday against Guelph, and will
help the Wolverines when they open their CCHA schedule against Lake Superior.

Volleyball rocks house tonight

By Jon Zemke
Daily Sports Writer
When you're down and you've been
kicked hard, the only thing left to do
is to gather yourself and make a
stand.
Michigan State did kick the
Wolverines when they were down on
Wednesday, at least according to
Spartan setter Christie Landry. The
only thing left for Michigan to do is to
make a stand.
The Wolverines plan on making
that stand at their annual Rock the
House match tonight against
Minnesota at 7 pm in Cliff Keen
Arena.
Rock the House is a promotional
vehicle produced by the Michigan
Athletic Department to publicize the
volleyball team. There will be com-
memorative t-shirt giveaways and
door prizes, plus the Michigan volley-
band will play.
This is the seventh time Michigan
has hosted Rock the House, which
has attracted 10,800 fans in its dura-
tion. The match against Michigan
State last year on Oct. 3 set the single-
match attendance record by packing

2,346 fans into a very crowded Keen
arena.
Traditionally, the Wolverines have
done very well in the Rock the House
matches, taking four of the six. Last
season, the Wolverines beat then-No
16 Michigan State by taking the last
three games in the four-game match.
In '96, Michigan upset then No. 9
Wisconsin in three games.
Hoping to beat three ranked teams
in a row in the Rock the House match,
the Wolverines take on No. 22
Minnesota tonight. The Golden
Gophers pose an imposing threat
against a struggling Michigan team.
The Wolverines have been unable to
beat a ranked team all season, and
have dropped several recent sweeps.
Minnesota boasts a 12-3 record
coming into Ann Arbor and is 2-2 in
the Big Ten. The two conference loss-
es have come to No. I Penn State and
No. 6 Wisconsin. The Wolverines
have beaten unranked Northwestern
and lost to four other Big Ten teams.
Even though Minnesota has lost
one of its captains to injury in senior
Linda Shudlick, the Gophers bring a
strong team. Sophomore Nicole

Branah set a personal best with 32
kills in the Gophers' win against Iowa
last Friday. Middle blocker Heather
Baxter, a sophomore, returns for the
Gophers after suffering a kidney
infection that sidelined her for the
beginning of the season. In her first
action this season, she contributed
four blocks against a very potent
Wisconsin middle attack.
Michigan will answer with its own
kill leader in senior Karen Chase.
Chase has consistently led the team in
kills every game save one. She has
averaged 4.37 kill per game and has a
.286 attack percentage. Senior
Jeanine Szczesniak will also look to
play a major role in the game - she's
one of the teams best servers with 17
aces.
"Hopefully (Rock the House) will
help us build and get a little confi-
dence," Szczesniak said. "We need a
win, and hopefully that will turn
things around."
To get that win, the team will have
to show some emotion that seemed to
be absent during Michigan's last
game. Landry also commented that
See ROCK, Page 12

Hoop dreams? Come
play Hoosier football

P icture Indiana. Go ahead, get
that image in your mind. What
db you think of?
Sprawling metropolises? No.
Thriving industry? Well ... not

really.
)ecaying
barnyards?
Ge ting closer.
You probably
pidture corn. Or
wheat. And
most likely
some livestock
an2 perhaps a
couple of farm-
namedJed.
IRa pretty sim-
ple picture to
conjure up.

SHARAT
RAJU
Sharat
in the Dark

sweeping generalization. No, it is
definitely sweeping.
But who can help it? Movies and
television have ruined all of us and
our perceptions of certain-regions of
the country. When we think of
Indiana we think of "Hoosiers"-
not in relation to the institution of
higher learning, but the mnvie.
We think of Indiana's hallowed
sport - basketball.
Pretty much any sports fan can
just picture Gene Hackman barking
orders from the sideline, instructing
his team to make four passes before
taking a shot.
Square wooden backboards
stripped of their original white paint,
rusty iron rims with no nets set
against a wide-open field and a stur-
dy farm boy firing jump shots for
hours. Perhaps a silo and a crum-
bling barn in the gray, rainy back-
ground. This is what people picture
when Indiana comes to nind.
Sure, that's mostly movie folklore,
but that transition to reality isn't so
. See RAJU, Page 13

Ray's fate to be
revealed today
Today is D-Day for Marcus Ray.
Late yesterday afternoon the
Michigan Athletic Department
announced a press conference for
this morning at 9 a.m.
Ray, the suspended tri-captain of
the Michigan football team, has not
played for the Wolverines since the
Syracuse game on Sept. 12. The
Thursday after that game, Ray was
declared ineligible by coach Lloyd
Carr for alleged "improper contact
with an agent."
The allegations, furnished to the
NCAA by a tip, were forwarded to
Athletic Director Tom Goss on
Sept. 15, at which point he
informed Carr of the situation. The
University's internal investigation
concluded last Friday when the
Athletic Department submitted its
report to the NCAA.
What the report contains
remains tobe seen. In submitting
the report, the University proposed
what sanctions it believed were
appropriate for the situation.
While Ray could be reinstated to
the team with his three missed
games as a punishment for time
served, it is possible his college
career could be over as well.
-Daily Sports Editor Mark Snyder


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